Sunday, October 21, 2007

Every Friday and Saturday at 10:30, you can see Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind and every time you see it it'll be a little different. Ok, this show is technically "experimental theatre" and yea, some of it walks the performance art line...but the majority of it is solid, entertaining comedy and it's sometimes even profound and thought-provoking. And the good news is, they do 30 different 2 minute plays in an hour, so if you're not feeling a particular play, you know it'll be over soon. And each weekend they change up the plays so you won't see the same show twice.

Too Much Light is its own beast...there's nothing else like it out there (except from the Chicago Neofuturists that is, the precursor to the New York company which still thrives out in Chicago). The Neofuturists play themselves and they write and perform all of the pieces in the show. Unlike other live, comedic performances, you're not seeing a single story unfold or seeing a series of jokes or sketches...rather, you're invited to share these people's experiences which can turn into a very raw and sometimes poignant moment. Most of the 30 plays are comedic, though, so it's not as heavy and deep as I'm probably making it sound. Subject matter of the plays varies; they are sometimes politically conscious, sometimes a comment on a funny experience, sometimes just hysterically ludicrous.

Too Much Light offers consistently high-quality entertainment from performers and writers who are not only good at putting on a show, they actually have something to say. See this show...it's the perfect thing to do on a random weekend night and always a great New York performance to take guests to.

Tickets are $10 plus the roll of a single sided die (so yea, it's between $11 and $16 depending on your luck). There is a bit of audience participation so if you're sheepish about that, don't sit in the front or on the aisle (but good luck, it's a small space). They play at the Kraine Theatre, 85 East 4th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues.

3 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I've seen TMLMTBGB a few times and it's always a good time. I just wanted to add a couple of things:

The audience participation is a big part of the show. It goes way beyond pulling people from the seats on occasion. The audience determines how the show goes down. When you walk into the theater, you're given a name tag (with a random, funny name on it) and a menu. This menu has the 30 plays listed on it and it's up to the audience to call out each play's number in order to have it performed. They're usually pretty good at getting through all 30 plays in the 60 minutes, but if you see something on the menu that you definitely don't want to miss, make sure to call out the number as loud and fast as you can.

Oh, and if they sell out the house, everyone gets free pizza. I've never seen it happen though.